By Jerry Riley

I received word that I was to be the recipient of a three dimensional wooden Christmas tree silhouette. I thought I’d put lights on it and set in up inside my house near a large window. Mrs. Claus and one of the elves delivered the tree and I set to work. I got the silhouette partway in the door before realizing the doorway was too narrow. I got the tree back outside, closed the door. I measured the tree and

the other doorways and changed the plan. I got some outside light strings from the basement.
Working in a too dim light on my patio, I untangled a string of lights and started walking around the silhouette stringing lights as I walked.
I know it would be hard to tell, but I think I made myself dizzy - yes, what a revolting development this is! Luckily, when I reached the base of the silhouette, I also reached the end of the light string.
Unfortunately, the string I had just strung didn’t have combination plugs on both ends so I had to walk around the tree, this time removing the string of lights. I moved the tree, so that it was easier to walk around it and started restringing the lights. When I got done, I moved the silhouette back, closer to the house and plugged in the lights. As I looked it over I thought to myself, “no one is going to see the lights on the house side,” so I moved the tree and removed the lights. Yes, again!
I decided just to string the lights back and forth, but only on three sides. I really still haven’t figured out why, but about half way down the tree I was out of lights. I got another string. This time I checked both ends of the string, so I would only have to string it once.
Finally, everything was done and the lights lit.
The next day, in the daytime, I decided I could move the tree away from the house. That meant I had to string lights all the way around, but it does look, well, OK

Jerry Riley is an occasional commentator for the News Bulletin. He is a retired telecommunications supervisor.

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